Boasson Hagen underlines Sanremo credentials with Tirreno stage win

Yesterday it was Mark Cavendish; today, Sky Procycling triumphed again in Tirreno-Adriatico, although this time the victory came courtesy of Edvald Boasson Hagen.

The team was working to set world champion Cavendish up for a second consecutive victory, but the Manxman wasn’t feeling at full strength and his Norwegian team-mate got the chance instead.

He seized the opportunity, going from a long way out and proving strong enough to hold off the in-form sprinter André Greipel (Lotto Belisol), Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Barracuda).

“I found out at about six kilometres to go that Mark didn't feel so good and I knew I'd be sprinting,” he said afterwards on the team website. “The whole team did a good job to keep me up towards the front. The guys with me did a really great job in the last kilometre. I'm really happy to win and that we managed to get the victory.

"It was a long sprint but I went and I knew I had to go for it. I know that I'm pretty good at long sprints and I've done it before. You never know what the other guys will do but it worked out well.

“Now we'll take it day by day. We have Thomas here for the GC so we will help him where we can and see where we end up.”

Overall race leader Matthew Goss (GreenEdge) finished sixth and retained his general classification advantage. He is three seconds ahead of team-mates Stuart O’Grady, Cameron Meier and Sebastian Langeveld, with Farrar and Boasson Hagen a further ten seconds back.

His directeur sportif Matt White said afterwards that he is feeling good about the rider’s chances for the defence of his Milan-Sanremo title next week.

“This was actually the first sprint of the year for Goss,” he stated. “He’s in a good place. We put him in a decent position coming into the final. We’re lacking one last guy for the leadout with Baden [Cooke] still sick and Julian [Dean] missing the race due to injury.

“The sprint at the end of Milan-San Remo and the other races upcoming are different than the sprints we have seen these last two days. People are arriving to the finish fairly fresh. They have been able to conserve energy. That’s not possible in the races upcoming that Matt will target.”

Today’s breakaway effort featured a long effort by the Colnago CSF Inox rider Filippo Savini of Colnago-CSF Inox. He attacked very soon after the start in Indicatore and was away for over 140 kilometres.

He built a lead of over elevent minutes, but was eventually caught thirty kilometres from the line in Terni. After that, the sprinters teams worked to ensure a big gallop, controlling attacks and keeping things together.

Boasson Hagen was the one who profited from that work, showing that Cavendish is not the only Sky Procycling rider who deserves the team’s backing in Milan Sanremo.